Anna Karenina eBook

“But do you know you are preparing trouble for
yourself,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, finding
his cap and getting up.

“How so?”

“Do you suppose I don’t see the line you’ve
taken up with your wife? I heard how it’s
a question of the greatest consequence, whether or
not you’re to be away for a couple of days’
shooting. That’s all very well as an idyllic
episode, but for your whole life that won’t
answer. A man must be independent; he has his
masculine interests. A man has to be manly,”
said Oblonsky, opening the door.

“In what way? To go running after servant
girls?” said Levin.

“Why not, if it amuses him? Ca ne tire pas
a consequence. It won’t do my wife
any harm, and it’ll amuse me. The great
thing is to respect the sanctity of the home.
There should be nothing in the home. But don’t
tie your own hands.”

“Perhaps so,” said Levin dryly, and he
turned on his side. “Tomorrow, early, I
want to go shooting, and I won’t wake anyone,
and shall set off at daybreak.”

“Messieurs, venez vite!” they heard
the voice of Veslovsky coming back. “Charmante!
I’ve made such a discovery. Charmante!
a perfect Gretchen, and I’ve already made friends
with her. Really, exceedingly pretty,”
he declared in a tone of approval, as though she had
been made pretty entirely on his account, and he was
expressing his satisfaction with the entertainment
that had been provided for him.

Levin pretended to be asleep, while Oblonsky, putting
on his slippers, and lighting a cigar, walked out
of the barn, and soon their voices were lost.

For a long while Levin could not get to sleep.
He heard the horses munching hay, then he heard the
peasant and his elder boy getting ready for the night,
and going off for the night watch with the beasts,
then he heard the soldier arranging his bed on the
other side of the barn, with his nephew, the younger
son of their peasant host. He heard the boy
in his shrill little voice telling his uncle what
he thought about the dogs, who seemed to him huge
and terrible creatures, and asking what the dogs were
going to hunt next day, and the soldier in a husky,
sleepy voice, telling him the sportsmen were going
in the morning to the marsh, and would shoot with
their guns; and then, to check the boy’s questions,
he said, “Go to sleep, Vaska; go to sleep, or
you’ll catch it,” and soon after he began
snoring himself, and everything was still. He
could only hear the snort of the horses, and the guttural
cry of a snipe.

“Is it really only negative?” he repeated
to himself. “Well, what of it? It’s
not my fault.” And he began thinking about
the next day.

“Tomorrow I’ll go out early, and I’ll
make a point of keeping cool. There are lots
of snipe; and there are grouse too. When I come
back there’ll be the note from Kitty. Yes,
Stiva may be right, I’m not manly with her,
I’m tied to her apron-strings.... Well,
it can’t be helped! Negative again....”